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Biomedical subjects

R M Costello

Publications and source records attributed to R M Costello.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Alcoholic mortality: a 12-year follow-up.

This is a study of alcoholic mortality in which time, cause, and age at death were variables of critical interest. Five cohorts of 100 members each were followed 12, 11, 9, 6, and 4 years. A total of 133 cases were located as deceased. The overall case fatality rate (CFR) was .0371. Higher CFR's were observed in years 1 to 6. Cardiovascular disease, violence (homicide, suicide, accidental), cirrhosis, carcionomas, and acute intoxication were the leading causes of death. Violent deaths were more prevalent in younger admission age groups. The cardiovascular/other ratio increased in older admission age groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Construction and cross-validation of an MMPI Black-White scale.

A robust set of MMPI items, sensitive to the effect of race (Blacks versus Whites), was constructed by compiling the results of six prior studies. Thirty-two items comprised the MMPI B-W scale. The scale was cross-validated on psychiatric patients and police cadets. Statistically significant mean differences were found between races in both groups, with 83% and 60% correct racial classification, respectively. These findings suggested that when used as a clinical instrument, the MMPI might pick up nonpathology-related racial variance contributing to scale devotion biased against the black respondent, but the degree of nonpathology-related racial scale score covariance has yet to be determined. For future research, the B-W scale was proposed as a set of standard queries in studies assessing connotative meaning for Black-White contrast groups, and to index "functional" as opposed to "objective" race membership.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1976

Comprehensive alcohol treatment planning, implementation, and evaluation.

A descriptive overview of a developing comprehensive alcohol treatment program is presented. The influence of staffing practices and client recruitment on implementation of treatment components is reviewed. Program evaluation and current issues regarding such evaluation are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Solomon design analysis of multiple-choice Rorschach animal content.

The Solomon four-group design was used to study the effects of a persuasive message on a selected multiple-choice Rorschach index--animal content. The independent variable elicited behavior in a predictable manner. Pretesting as a main effect was not significant, but as an interactional effect obviated the effect of the persuasive message. Although knowledge of test rationale can elicit behavior that conforms to experimental demand characteristics, some subjects nonetheless acted in defiance of such information. A condition for defiance in this experimental arrangement, however, was pretesting. Other possibilities regarding the study of compliance behavior and the use of pathognomonic indicators were suggested. Ethical issues were raised.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1975

Alcoholism treatment and evaluation: in search of methods. II. Collation of two-year follow-up studies.

This study collated 23 articles reporting outcome of alcoholism treatment efforts over a 2-year follow-up period. Broad conclusions reached by Costello (1975) in a similar collation of studies reporting on a 1-year follow-up interval found general support. Similar consistencies were noted across studies within groups described as having good outcome profiles as was noted by the previous collation. Good outcome results from matching relatively better prognostic cases wtih programs with broad treatment resources. Multiple baselines were offered as guidelines for program evaluation. Baselines were generated in the process of collation by hierachal grouping of outcome profiles. Different baseline to measure effectiveness of performance should prove appropriate for different measuring tasks. No one baseline is appropriate for all measuring tasks.

Alcoholics Anonymous↗